The Wedding of the King
by Eduard Tubin
Summary: Stella's father wants to remarry but Stella is unhappy. This story includes my OCs Daria and James.


**Tales of the Realm of Magic**

**The Wedding of the King**

"Does that actually work?" Bloom sat next to Daria who lay with her feet up on the back of the couch and head on the coffee table.

"No." Daria answered in a wheezy voice. "Laying on your back with your fee in the air does bugger all for kidney stones but sometimes we need the bald illusion of taking action."

"Are you in any pain?"

"I wouldn't be staring up at your hideously pink ceiling if I weren't." Daria told Bloom. "Once I pass this one, I'll have enough to make a bracelet."

"I was looking for Stella." Bloom patted Daria on the shoulder. "She wanted to show me the new clothes for this school year and have a fitting."

"Stella has the latest Winx hookerwear ready?" Daria squirmed. "She usually also has an outfit for me – she forgets how hairy I am."

"I'm here." Stella walked through the door and sang out to Daria and Bloom. "Why are you laying like that?"

"She has another kidney stone." Bloom took the burden of explaining off of Daria.

"You get them a lot. Why doesn't James ever have them?" Stella walked around Daria and dropped the pink stiff paper bag on the table next to her head. "I may have something to cheer you up."

"Please don't dress me up – I want to be able to enter Saudi Arabia." Daria rubbed her forehead.

"Aw but you're so pretty!" Stella cooed. "You would look cool in a nice dress."

"I have hair all up my back," Daria put menace in her voice, "I assure you that I look even hairier south of the equator and I have no desire to shave my bikini zone."

"Take time to feel better." Stella genuinely liked her little friend but could tell from the tone in her voice that for now the subject was closed. Stella snapped her fingers and conjured up a full length mirror. "You would look lovely with a touch of royal blue to show off your amber eyes and the red stripes on your quills – I'll give that some thought."

You have kidney stones again?" Musa spoke more from the annoyance that Daria took up her space on the couch than real concern. "You should see Nurse Ofelia about changing your diet from rat to squirrel."

"I won't say anything out of respect for the horrible curse you suffer." Daria gave her words a hint of menace with a soft hiss.

"I'm not under any curse." Musa stood at Daria's feet.

"So that is your real personality then?" Daria came back.

"Have you met with any of the new fairies?" Musa ignored Daria and turned to speak with Bloom. "Do you know who our students will be this year?"

"We'll meet some of them at lunch and Faragonda will give us a chance to introduce ourselves no doubt." Bloom stood up and half jogged to Musa.

"Oh my...God!" Daria lurched off the pink velvet couch. "Let me through. I think I'm passing a stone."

Daria scuttled under the legs of her friends in a bid for the bathroom.

Musa waited until Daria rounded the corner out of the living room and heard the bathroom door slam.

"We should leave early for lunch." Musa whispered to Bloom and Stella.

"Yeow!" Daria screamed and let out a loud, evil hiss.

"I see your point." Bloom nodded.

"Lunch isn't for the better part of an hour." Stella glanced at the ornate cuckoo clock on the wall which kept perfect time using magic.

"What the hell are you watching me for? Does seeing me excrete rock from my innards bring you joy you bizzarre little rabbit!?" Bloom heard another hiss and the thud of a toilet brush hitting the door.

"We could go early." Stella nodded in agreement and shivered. "We can meet and greet the first year fairies and I can talk about my boutique."

* * *

"King Radius..."

"Go away!" Daria angrily yelled at the young blond haired woman in her blue and orange harlequin outfit. "Piss off and die. I'm not Princess Stella!"

"Is proud to announce..."

"If you make me get up from the couch; you'll regret having traveled 286 light years to bother a girl with kidney stones." Daria grimaced momentarily and looked for a thing to bludgeon the hologram. The hologram paused while Daria spoke.

"You keep on about the new welfare reforms and I'll go find someone who cares." Daria slid off the couch and walked through the middle of the hologram which shattered into a thousand round yellow iridescent balls. "Let me guess; they modeled your software on Stella's mental profile."

"Are you all right?" Bloom greeted Daria at the entrance to the cafeteria. "What are you doing here?"

Daria looked around the seating area of the cafeteria.

"Why not meet all the nice first year fairies?" Daria spoke with her trademarked sarcasm and hyperbole. "I supervise the potion lab and so I'll need to know their names so I can advise the emergency room staff whose plan to bill after they inhale nerve gas."

"Uh – huh?" Bloom gave Daria a scolding look.

"Where is Stella!?" Daria looked around the mingling crowds of fairies. "Her dad sent a hologram and it keeps on stammering on about anew princess ball to be held in her honor. The stupid thing thinks I'm Stella and won't leave me alone to enjoy my pain."

"You'll find her in her boutique showing the new students the fashion services she can offer." Bloom patted Daria on the back and pointed in the direction of Stella's boutique.

"Dirty Deeds Done at Market Value." Daria then hissed petulantly at Bloom as Bloom nudged her toward the boutique. "I'll go! I have to plan this carefully because I know of Stella's plan to dress us all up like Italian cosplayers."

"Are you one of our teachers?" A blond haired first year fairy in a pink sweater and blue capri pants approached Daria.

"I run the potion lab." Daria told the girl as she made her way out of the cafeteria. "I will meet you tomorrow if you are taking potions class."

"What kind of magical creature is she – a dragon?" The girl asked Bloom.

"Hell no..." Daria came back with her reply as she left.

Daria wasn't a dragon: she was a paradox. A group of ancient lizards evolved a neck fringe from spare skull and neck bones. This attracted mates and in some lucky specimens, allowed for efficient gliding. Daria and her cousin were the latest iteration of a line of reptiles dwelling in the deserts of Solaria. Smart, small and fast, her kind were warm blooded, agile flying pack hunting predators

Daria's cousin rushed around with Stella bewildering first year fairies who had expected their tailor to be taller and lacking quills.

"Found your calling?" Daria asked her cousin. "Fitting us all for pith helmets? Making sure we all have bare midriffs?"

"A moment of your time Stella?" Daria walked up to her. "This has nothing to do with shoes. Your dad sent you a Sungram which is hovering in your living room and annoying me."

"Any idea what it's about?" Stella queried.

"Absolutely none." Daria rattled her quills. "The last one showed an endless loop of a cat doing something stupid on the edge of a roof. Dad just learning how to use the Interweb?"

Stella followed Daria to the living room.  
"Is proud to announce."

"The thing keeps repeating that." Daria walked through the hologram as a light bee buzzed inside it and projected the image. She tamped down the urge to bite down on it as it buzzed her face because the message might have some importance.

"My dad wants to marry his old friend..." Stella wept and hugged Daria for support as the hologram faded. "He's engaged to Prince Edmund. I didn't know my dad was into that."

"I had no idea it was a possibility." Daria couldn't avoid having Stella put her arms around her. "Certainly not one I wish to contemplate."

"I kept hoping my mom and dad would get back together." Stella hugged Daria tightly making her squeal in protest. Stella ignored Daria's raspy squeal and cried.

"Do you have a reason for squishing Daria?" Bloom asked kindly. Bloom stood at the door and saw Stella hugging Daria and crying.

"Oh Bloom!" Stella let go of Daria and rushed to hug Bloom.

"What just happened?" Daria fell back on on her rear and wore a confused look on her face.

"What has you so upset?" Bloom asked Stella tenderly.

Stella told Bloom.

* * *

"I've reached an important conclusion about human nature." Daria walked beside Bloom, flapping from time to time as she couldn't reach the speed of a purposeful human stride. Bloom took it as a lesson in nimble reflexes that Daria could pull this odd gait and still hold onto the books in her arms and not knock down any of the novice fairies.

"How did your first class in the potion lab go?" Bloom asked Daria in mid flap.

"Two...I have reached two conclusions about human nature." Daria stutted forward like a soldier with her wings partly spread out. Daria wasn't a sturdy walker, not designed to run and the goosestep was the fastest she could do crossing the concrete walk across the quad.

"You have stupid teenagers...but I wanted to draw your attention to Stella's torment." Daria flapped forward. "I will admit I find human nature much more diverse than my nature and this new from Solaria took me by surprise. I could not have imagined this and so really have no idea how to act. I find humans ambiguous but Stella's upset so maybe I can't ignore this."

"She is very fond of her father." Bloom opened the door to the cafeteria for Daria. "Humans can fall in love for many reasons and it can confuse us. Nature spared you that by making your idea of love more hardwired."

"Are you giving me flack for being confused?" Daria hopped on Bloom's shoulder which meant she had tired from walking.

"You're actually a complex little girl and while you're looking out from those big eyes trying to make sense of us; we're staring back wondering what you're all about." Bloom tapped Daria's bony forehead. "Stella will be grateful you are concerned."

Daria and James worked as a team teaching basic potion making and despite her best efforts to complain about her class; she had a gift for explaining complicated procedures and concepts as well as providing entertainment. Most of her students caught onto her quirky sense of humor and adopted her as one of the faculty.

Beep!

"What are you doing back there?" Bloom sat with a cup of tea in one hand and a repressed urge to swat Daria in her mind.

"What _is _that box?" Flora leaned back to look and found Daria running a dark blue plastic box across Daria's back.

"This is the latest and greatest in _seeing inside things _technology." Daria cheerfully explained to Flora. "Imagine you're a forensic pathologist and you have to find Griselda's ex boyfriend. You know she walled him up in the dorm wing but you don't want to tear down all the walls. Well this is your baby!"

Beep!

"We were having tea and discussing Stella's plight." Tecna scowled at Daria from across the table.

"I came here to talk about that." Daria continued to run the wall scanner down Bloom's back.

Beep!

"Why the hell would you have metal down there? Anyway!" Daria grumbled and stumbled forward. "When I went down to pick up this thing; Miele handed me a wedding invitation. I got mine first because she wanted to get rid of me and you'll be receiving yours. We will be invited to the wedding of King Radius and Prince Edmund. Just letting you know in advance before Stella breaks down and crushes me in a bear hug."

Beep!

"She's been in her room all day." Bloom told Daria. "I thought she wanted to be left alone."

"Sackcloth and ashes?" Daria put the wall scanner in her tunic pocket. "Perhaps I should try to talk to her."

"Don't you think gay marriage is wrong?" Tecna reminded Daria.

"I never said that!" Daria spoke with indignation. "I said that I have difficulty relating to this sort of thing because _I don't have a human nature_. I worry about Stella and how she feels because we differ in countless ways: I have a hairy back and can't walk in high heels – you guys worked on my boots so I could walk without _too_ much effort. I'm by nature a flying creature. Stella – the differences are obvious. We share a difficult and sad childhood and we come from Solaria. I hope that will pass your test."

* * *

"While James hands out your grades for yesterday's work," Daria stood on the long black table at the front of the potion lab and tried to look regal as James handed out stapled paper. "I wish to remind you of a few things..."

"Yes...uh you." Daria pointed to a young girl with waist long hair turquoise done up in a long pony tail.

"My name is Perina." She found Daria somewhat rude because she pointed. "Why did you deduct ten percent off my grade for 'spelling and grammar'."

Precision counts in science and magic!" Daria snapped back. "If I followed your methods; this lab would have to be decontaminated by guys in biohazard suits."

Her class grumbled. Daria wasn't the pushover they had found Professor Palladium to be and this was why she taught the lab. Another girl with orange hair in a pixie cut raised her hand as she looked at her paper.

"Why did you circle part of my results paragraph and write 'incorrect'." She rattled the paper.

"The square of a negative real number is not_ negative_. By all perspectives,_ that is as incorrect as you can get. _We all make mistakes and we survive most of them. When you make a mistake and it doesn't kill you – we call that learning. When you make a mistake and it does kill you – we call that evolution." Daria flapped off the counter and paced the room looking up at her students. "I make mistakes and so does James and so does everyone in this room. I once saw a porcupine wandering the Gloomywood Forest and as a predator; I thought: I can take it. I couldn't and as Nurse Ofelia dug out the quills with what must have been a melon baller, I experienced learning."

"What did you learn?" The orange haired girl asked sarcastically.

"I learned how to kill a porcupine by dropping a brick on it from above." Daria walked toward the orange haired girl. "Then you fly down and kick it over to expose its soft underbelly...and that porcupines taste bad."

"Ew!" The girl wrinkled her nose.

"Yes...well you show promise as a restaurant critic." Daria cleared her throat. "Today we will study the Law of Unintended Consequences. Some of you may lose your eyebrows in the course of this lab. One of you will set James on fire."

"What?" James asked quietly. "I hope not."

"How can you conduct a dangerous lab like that?" A girl with long flowing blond hair jerked her head up.

"You won't be injured!" Daria clasped her hands behind her back. "No one died of losing their eyebrows and we have a fire extinguisher."

"What about James?" The same girl asked.

"He has more hair but he can move a lot faster than you." Daria sighed impatiently. "I get the impression Cressida, you think I care deeply about your welfare. I don't, but I like my paycheck."

"I'm Persephone, she's Cressida." The girl pointed to her lab partner on the stool next to her.

"Will _you_ let me proceed?" Daria glared and walked to the whiteboard. "A healing potion ought to heal a broken wrist but not cause gigantism – side effects. A Columbo potion – a potion that makes inanimate things like wall clocks talk and give witness to a crime ought not make the clock malfunction, giving the wrong time or ranting at people like a lunatic."

"But fairies always must try to do good." Another student piped up.

"They don't always succeed." Daria held a whiteboard marker. "I will write down how to make a potion that will make metal glow a bright blue in the dark. I will deliberately included a few mistakes and omit details. You must concoct your potion while working out where I led you astray."

"Is this safe?" Another girl asked.

"No one lives forever." Daria continued to write with her back to the class but she sighed loudly. "I assure you we'll have relatively few meltdowns."

Daria turned around and paced the lab tabled as James went to a cupboard and fetched a blue plastic bin with chunks of metal in it.

"Each pair of you will get a chunk of magnesium – which is element number twelve on the Periodic Table." Daria told her class as James handed out the chunks. "If you do succeed, that piece of metal will glow with a cool gem like light that you can hold in your hand. If not, it will burn with a blinding, white hot flame."

Most of the girls winced.

"Don't worry...James and I will be here to help." Daria flapped back down off the counter. "If you run into problems, feel free to ask questions."

Persephone raised her hand.

"Feel free to ask questions that aren't stupid." Daria walked up to Persephone and Cressida and Persephone lowered her hand.

Daria sat on top of one of the front loading washing machines in the Alfea laundry room and watched _'Rick and Morty' _on her phone as the machine rumbled away.

"Hi Daria." Flora walked into the laundry room holding an orange plastic laundry basket. "How are you doing today?"

* * *

"I had to fish bra clips out of the pump filter." Daria looked up at Flora. "Bloom sent me to do dish towels and such so she could have a private talk with Stella. If your machine refuses to display the length of the wash cycle and an ominous E11 comes up on the display panel then your machine has a clogged pump filter. I had to look it up on my phone and watch a shaky video before I figured all that out."

"Actually I'm helping Stella by doing some of her laundry because she's felt depressed lately." Flora placed her hands on the handles of the of the basket. "We all help each other."

"Indeed." Daria placed her phone down and it began rattling softly as the machine worked away. "As long as throwing a blue detergent pod in a washing machine and pressing 'Start' sets the bar high enough to make you feel good."

Musa walked in with another orange laundry basket full of clothes.

"One machine no waiting." Daria greeted Musa.

"Stella gets all out of shape over her father marrying another man." Musa tugged at the washing machine door. "If I only could have her luck and still have a family."

"Oh dear." Flora exclaimed.

"Safety experts say you shouldn't do laundry unless you can focus all your attention to the task." Daria calmly explained. "The door pulls open from the right hand side."

"Her father deserves to make his own decisions but Stella doesn't think its 'right'." Musa popped the door open. "I say she should accept her father for who he is."

"Don't forget to add the soap and check for any blue rabbits." Daria picked up her phone just as it were about to fall in the gap between the washer and drier.

Flora carefully sifted the laundry and added the pod followed by one piece of clothing at at time.

Musa shoved the whole basket into the machine, stooped to pick up a piece that had fallen onto the floor, threw the detergent pod into the drum and slammed the door shut.

Flora looked up with a start.

Musa's machine made a click.

"Daria...my machine won't start!" Musa gritted her teeth. "I need some fresh air and I don't feel like doing laundry for that narrow minded hag."

Musa kicked the basket across the small room and left.

"Look at the display." Daria told Flora. "What does it say?"

"E11?"

"The drain pump is clogged." Daria flapped down from the top of her machine and landed beside Flora.

"Today you'll learn how to clean the filter pump on a washing machine." Daria told Flora in an excited voice. "If you follow my instructions,_ treasure you may find_."

"You came out of that with five earrings, two hair clips, buttons and a coin from Earth." Daria held up the basket of dish cloths and slid it onto the table. "You can pawn the earrings."

"I should find out who owns them so I can give them back." Flora placed the remaining two baskets gently on the floor. "I wouldn't feel right keeping them."

"Thanks guys." Bloom sat with her head resting on her hands.

"I can pawn them then." Daria stood on a chair and sorted the clothes. "I figure I earned the money cleaning the pump in the first place."

"Where the hell is my phone!?" Daria panicked for a moment but found her phone in the inner pocket of her tunic.

"Anything for my friends." Flora smiled as she took a seat at the table. "It didn't go well did it honey?"

"Stella won't accept her father's lifestyle choice." Bloom sighed in frustration. "Musa won't have anything to do with Stella because of all of this and now they're fighting. I spent an hour talking to Stella trying to help her to talk this out and she stormed off and locked herself in her room."

"You know, Daria, should fold the dish towels and put them away." Flora suggested as she invoked magic to neatly fold Stella's clothes. "See how I'm folding up Stella's clothes."

"My head is about the shape and size of the cup on that frilly bra." Daria pointed to one of Stella's undergarments and spoke in a way to show she disliked being condescended to. "You can iron it against my head to get the right shape."

"You _are_ a strange little girl." Bloom shook her head at Daria in a subtle effort to keep this serious conversation on track. Daria had a meandering train of thought which with her visual brain, she often confounded Bloom with her weird metaphors and leaps of logic. Bloom liked talking with Daria but she needed patience and this wasn't in sufficient supply.

"I don't know _how_ to talk to her." Flora turned to Bloom. "I can see her point of view and I agree with Musa but, you know; I have no idea how I'd react if this were my dad."

"James?" Daria spoke up when she heard her cousin enter the apartment. "I have laundry to fold. Come here and do it."

Daria jumped to the next seat and sat down, twitched her wings, tented her fingers and leaned forward.

James obligingly began folding the cloths.

"We could tell her politely to repress her feelings." Daria looked to Bloom and then to Flora. "You frequently ask me to repress mine."

"And how often does that work in your case?" Bloom winked. "You have lots in common with Stella when it comes to openly expressing your feelings: you get surly and mad while she gets depressed."

"Hold on." Daria half hissed as she flapped of the chair.

"Daria…I didn't mean to to insult you." Bloom pleaded.

"You didn't." Daria yelled. "But you gave me insight."

"It's Daria." Daria gently rapped on Stella's door. "I came to talk."

Stella brushed her yellow night robe.

"Will you tell me to cheer up or yell at me for having a narrow mind?" Stella walked to the door and opened it.

"We don't have a chaplain." Daria sauntered in and twitched her wings as a sign she was pleased to see Stella. "I came to_ sort of_ fill that role although I don't believe in God or the afterlife. I'm a chaplain who doesn't suffer from the God Delusion. Why pay a chaplain to share his favorite delusions when I'll do that for free?"

"Always clear and confusing." Stella fell forward onto her bed.

Daria sat on the edge of the bed: "I came to see how you are coping."

"Musa called me narrow minded but I'm not." Stella sang sadly: "but this is my dad."

"At this point, I should say something cliched." Daria placed her hands on the bed and leaned back.

"I should rework your braid." Stella sat behind Daria with her legs crossed. Daria had back hair that grew out of the skin of her spinal column to a length of about twenty centimeters. Daria looked like a lizard like little girl and Stella thought that braiding this back hair helped the bat winged girl look more like a girl in spite of her candy cane red and clear quills. Daria and James enjoyed having their hair fussed over and Stella loved working their oddly silky feeling dark, almost black hair.

"I didn't _know_ my dad was gay." Stella confessed to Daria. "He's may dad – you know. Musa made it sound like I had rejected him for it."

"Well...he was straight enough for you to come into the world." Daria spoke as the level headed intellectual but Stella knew this was one of her clever digs at the human condition. "You should begin to work by solving the problems you can manage first. "I would talk to Musa." Daria suggested as Stella played with her hair. "You can tell her what you just told me."

"You are easier to talk to." Stella reflected on her childhood of constant bullying. Daria wasn't human and at times was a damn good bully but she had candor and honesty. "You don't judge me for being flaky."

"The entire human race is flaky." Daria spoke and kept her eye on a nice orange spider lurking under the door of Stella's walk in closet. "I can't understand your feelings half the time. The Trix stole me and my cousin from my family and so missing my mother and the way things used to be – I get that. My mom sang songs of beautiful color to lull me to sleep on cold nights and I miss the stories she told. I have a family too."

Stella smiled softly and nodded.

"We have no way of going back." Daria warned kindly. "I guess I'm lucky. I grew up without much so I can get knowing happiness is fleeting and enjoying it as I find it. You had a childhood of pomp and circumstance and opulence and you look back on past happiness."

"Don't mess with James." Bloom whispered under her voice as she watched Aisha try to make James play catch with a tennis ball. She threw it down the quad and tried to have it land in the fountain. Daria and James disliked water as they were free living desert creatures and Aisha liked to mess with them.

She threw the tennis ball and James did not chase after it.

James hissed at her: his way of saying she didn't play fair.

She hadn't quite grasped that Daria and James had brains perfectly adapted to predict the course of things moving in the air and he could predict the course of the ball and wouldn't go after it.

"How can you mess with such a sweet guy." Bloom spoke half ironically. James was no fool and would not take being thought of as stupid without insult. "And you probably can't out think him. He has a faster brain – watch him pick off pigeons."

* * *

James rattled his quills. He shared with Daria a wonderful set of six hollow quills – three on each side of his spine that had their roots in the lower back and pointed up past his head. Of all his physical features, the red and white striped quills were the most imposing as they ended in sharp hypodermic needle like points. These quills looked like something a dragon ought to have and so many uninformed people took him for a dragon. He wasn't even closely related to them. He hated dragons and Bloom had to talk to him to calm him as Brandon landed on the back of a huge beast from Red Fountain.

James hissed as Brandon got of the monster.  
Bloom asked him to be 'civil'.

"I'm sorry." Brandon suddenly realized he had made a mistake landing the dragon in the quad.

Bloom had to count on James' natural intelligence to override his desire to drive off the dragon from his hunting grounds around Alfea.. James had a fine intellect but also the sort of smarts that a lizard descendant would have.

The dragon posed little threat to James because James flew far faster, was a magnitude smaller and many magnitudes smarter. Dragons were not very bright: they let people ride them while James and Daria didn't. The reverse wasn't true: a pack of Daria and James and their kin could take out a dragon.

"I know you don't get along with dragons." Brandon addressed the tetchy little boy as he rattled his quills. "I wanted to see Stella and my hoverbike was in for servicing."

"James Lane..quit squirming and being a pain!" Bloom commanded him as he chirped. "You can't play with a dragon."

"I came to see if Stella is doing okay." Brendan explained to Bloom as she held James back with her hand. She took this action symbolically to assert her will. Daria and James had come to regard her as their leader and didn't wish to displease her but they were powerful fliers and quick and so could evade Bloom if they were determined. "Have you talked to her lately?"

Aisha watched this with fascination: Daria and James had social and gender roles deeply wired into their brains in such a way that made them seem narrow minded and rigid. James would peep and quibble and yet never disobey Bloom. Aisha disliked Daria because she had her abrasive side and could bully poor James at times but somehow they were both genuinely fond of each other.

"Come on James, lets go inside and watch TV." Bloom held him by the shoulder. "Lets meet up in the cafeteria."

James let out a series of high pitched tones and let loose a hiss. Bloom knew he had advised Daria of the dragon.

"James just told me Brandon landed in the courtyard on his dragon. Daria told Stella.

Stella tied a gold ribbon in Daria's hair. This kind of far reaching communication still astonished Stella although Tecna had described it as somehow sending images through the air by ultrasound. Flora and Roxy regarded this talent as a wonder of nature and Tecna could even use her computer to 'listen in'.

"So he is quite upset?" Stella had known Daria and James disliked dragons intruding on Alfea's grounds and yet this time Daria didn't seem at all upset by the news.

"So Brendan and Stella went out to have coffee?" Musa walked slowly past Daria as the reptile girl sat at the kitchen table and worked to repair her bookshelf stereo. "Perhaps he can impart some common sense to that girl."

Daria said nothing but Bloom sat at the same table and had much to say.

"Have you given any thought that this is difficult for Stella?" Bloom objected. "She just discovered this side of her father."

"Where is James?" Daria looked up from behind her collection of multimeters and a hot soldering iron. "Shouldn't _he_ be burning the tips of his fingers?"

"Watching our TV, eating bugs and studying tomorrow's lecture." Musa answered impatiently.

"Can you concentrate on your work Daria?" Bloom had her stereo in Daria's finely co-ordinated but impetuous hands.

"These people took five weeks to send the part." Daria held up the front cover and pointed to the logo. "You could have bought much the same thing in Magix and _they_ would have believed you when you tried to obtain warranty service because _Flora the Fairy of Nature _spilled a potion that made plants talk into the top grill of this thing."

"Why do you think I'm paying you to do it?" Bloom sat next to Daria and sipped her tea.

"You think Stella will talk to me again?" Musa sat at the table across from Bloom. "I didn't mean to hurt her feelings – just wish I had said something different."

"Have you considered the advantages of not having Stella talk to you?" Daria began to solder a black square thing onto the main board of the radio as Bloom wondered if she'd have to buy a new radio. "A quieter life comes to mind."

"Daria!" Both Musa and Bloom exclaimed.

The acrid smell of rosin filled the kitchen Daria worked.

"I don't read you well at times." Daria admitted as her fine hands worked away.

"And sometimes you use that excuse to get away with being a smart ass." Bloom told Daria bluntly. "You would be laughing under that smirk if you could."

Daria blew lightly over the circuit board and placed her iron in its stand.

"My species can't laugh." Daria selected a blue handled screwdriver from a large kit she had bought from the same company that made them for NASA. "We can enjoy a sense of superiority though."

"Before I sew up the patient, lets do a test." Daria slapped the outlet strip on the table and then plugged the radio into it and turned the strip on. "No_ loud_ bang – good. Now if I remember how this Wave radio works, I can play a CD if I have one but I don't listen to music. Anyone have one?"

"I'll get one of my favorites." Musa stood up from the table.

"Oh dear." Daria commented as she played the radio. "Will this be one of Melody's fun dance tunes that are so happy the flies in the hall drop dead from ecstasy and concert goers think they've ingested meth."

"You_ really_ don't like music." Bloom told Daria although she wanted to ask her radio repair reptile why she felt the need to be so edgy. Daria and James disliked loud music and rhythm wasn't part of their mental toolkit. They had no ability to hear the bass notes and often complained that men spoke _'in the mud'_. Daria hated dance music because Aisha had tried to teach her to dance at a school function but ended up flinging Daria into a tree and caused a fuss to break out.

James sat alone on the couch and watched reruns of Hogan's Heroes. James wondered why humans could watch this blinking panel of color. While the shows could entertain, the set reproduced motion very poorly – like a cheap cartoon, and if he watched the thing too long; all he could see were the dots of color that made up the pixelsi.

Stella walked into the living room and James nodded to her as she entered the flat.

"How are you tonight?" Stella asked as she closed the door quietly. "Isn't it rather late?"

"We don't need much sleep." James muted the volume. "In this case, I'm killing time watching a new Community Access Channel that runs old Earth programs."

"My dad invites you to attend his wedding." Stella sat down beside James and handed him an invitation inside a gold envelope. "This will actually happen."

"What should we get them as a wedding gift?" James twitched his left wing. "Your dad must own everything he could ever want given his position."

"Give him a gift you'd want him to have." Stella gently explain. "Of course you don't know him so..."

"I don't."

"I kept hoping my parents would get back together and that never happened." Stella looked down at her animated little friend. "After Valtor and those witches nearly took over Solaria, I thought he'd go back to mom. I just didn't know how he felt."

"I _think_ I remember my dad." James spoke philosophically. "I could be making up those memories to fill a gap in my little life. We want to think we were happy once."

"Are _you_ unhappy?"

James sat up from the couch to stretch his wings.

"Not as such." James looked up Stella with his huge green eyes. "This is where I am. The room is one shade too pink and my friends are fairies which by the standards of my species hold to an odd moral code. I'm happy enough."

"I must seem shallow to my friends." Stella mused. "I still love my dad and I will _always_."

"Imagine life is a tale told by an idiot and you act shallow and spoiled because the writer wrote out your role to fit the plot." James gave a sad sigh. "You live a dream drawn out at twenty four frames each second if the studio had the funds, to entertain kids who like a shallow, spoiled princess."

"What is your point?" Stella asked in a tired voice.

"You can't be a slave to the idiot or his animators if you have the sense of something you could do that is different." James tilted his head oddly. "You want to make a moral choice and feel you made the right choice. You can ask my opinion but you still have to choose if you will accept your dad for who he is."

"What about the idiot and his animators?"

"They'll have to work overtime."


End file.
